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POLICY

Personal leave with pay is earned by all regular full-time employees, except nine-month faculty, students and retirees hired on an emergency basis, after one month of continuous service, according to employment status and length of annual employment periods. Personal leave may be used for vacations, personal business and illnesses requiring absences of one day or less. Personal leave may also be utilized during Family and Medical Leave which is granted to eligible employees because of childbirth or placement of a child through adoption or foster care; due to the serious health condition of a child, spouse, or parent; or, in the case of an employee's own serious health condition (See Family and Medical Leave, #60-208). Personal leave may only be taken at times agreed upon by employees and their department/unit head and must be approved in advance, except when personal leave is requested for medical reasons. Personal leave may be denied by the department/unit head if the employee's absence would unduly affect the functioning of the unit. Approval of personal leave may not be arbitrarily withheld or withheld without justifiable cause. A department/unit head may specify that personal leave only be taken based on departmental needs and schedules; however, if personal leave usage is to be specified, affected non-contract employees must be notified, in writing, at the beginning of the fiscal year. If personal leave usage is to be specified for contract employees, the employees must be notified, in writing, when annual contracts are issued.

Procedure/Regulations

1. Personal leave credit is earned proportionally according to employment status and computed on the basis of continuous service. The following monthly and annual accrual rates are based on employment for 40 hours per week for twelve calendar months annually.

2. Employees who work more than 20 hours per week and/or less than twelve months annually earn personal leave credit on a pro-rata basis of the full-time accrual rates shown above.

3. There is no limit to the accumulation of earned personal leave.

4. Employees must request leave by completing the Application for Leave form prior to taking the leave which is submitted by the department/unit head to the Department of Human Resources Management.

5. Employees may not be granted personal leave with pay in an amount greater than earned and accumulated.

6. Employees on an approved leave of absence for one year or less who later return to duty, are eligible for accumulated personal leave which was earned prior to taking leave.

7. Employees who have terminated employment with the University for one month or more and later are re-employed will begin a new period of employment and will accrue personal leave according to accrual rates for one month to three years of service. Employees who have terminated employment with the University for less than one month and who are re-employed, will accrue personal leave based on previous continuous service.

8. Employees may be granted a maximum of 240 hours of personal leave within the six-month period immediately preceding termination. This leave may be taken only with approval of the employees' supervisor and may be denied if such leave causes a problem in the workload distributed within the unit. Any exception to this must be approved through the employees' chain of command to the appropriate vice president and forwarded to the Director of Human Resources Management for action.

9. Upon termination of employment, employees will be paid for unused personal leave not to exceed 240 hours. Unused personal leave in excess of 240 hours will be counted as creditable service for those employees participating in the Public Employees' Retirement System. Unused personal leave in excess of 240 hours is forfeited by those employees participating in the Optional Retirement Plan.

10. When employees transfer to other departments within the University, the department accepting the transferred employees assumes liability for personal leave earned by the employees.

11. Accrued personal leave is transferable with employees to other state of Mississippi agencies or institutions.

12. Personal leave records for all employees are maintained by the Department of Human Resources Management.

13. Any unused personal leave will be paid to employees' beneficiaries as recorded with the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Optional Retirement Plan, as appropriate, should employees die. Any unused personal leave will be paid to employees' estates should temporary employees die.

Personal Leave: Nine-Month Faculty

Formal personal leave policy provisions are not applicable for nine-month faculty members. Duty and non-duty requirements for these faculty members are determined by individual assignments, annual academic calendar, related activities, and special conditions as may be determined by departmental and University programs.

HRM #60-201
Effective 11/25/85
Revised 7/1/96

For information about this policy, contact the  Department of Human Resources Management.